A taxi driver who subjected a passenger to a horrifying abduction and rape has been jailed for eight and a half years.

Khalile Maqsood raped the 20-year-old at knifepoint after driving her to a deserted car park in Billingham last September.

He said the young woman, who refused his advances after he picked her up as she walked alone to a party, had led him on and had been “really up for it”.

But a jury at Teesside Crown Court trial rejected his not guilty plea to rape.

Sentencing at Newcastle Crown Court, Judge Rodney Jameson said he had considered imposing an indeterminate sentence for the public protection.

He said: “This young woman was obviously vulnerable and in drink.

”In her drunken and vulnerable state she obviously did not understand the danger she was placing herself in.

”She thought you were a kind and generous man and were offering her a lift out of kindness.

”You were not.

”She was an attractive young girl and you picked her up understanding she was in drink and unlikely to be in a position to resist what you were to do.”

He said Maqsood, who denied rape, had shown little understanding of and no remorse for what he had done.

The judge said his “heart bled” for the family of the married father-of-four, 31.

Maqsood, of Brookfield Road, Stockton-on-Tees, spotted his victim in his taxi in Billingham in the early hours of September 10 last year.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, initially thought his white cab was a “lifesaver” as she walked to a party.

She said Maqsood, who was traced to Royal Cars in Stockton, pulled up and offered her a lift.

She got in but Maqsood took a series of wrong turns then stopped in a car park and turned off the engine.

She said he asked for a kiss and cuddle, which she refused, then he took her phone from her as it rang.

When she tried to take it back, he said, “If you don’t do as I say, I’ll stab you.”

Maqsood initially denied having picked up the woman.

When confronted with DNA evidence he changed his story, admitting to having sex with the woman but claiming it was by consent.

He told detectives his victim initiated sex by stroking his leg and making suggestive comments.

He told jurors: “I’m only human at the end of the day. She’d come on to me. I made a mistake.

”I just gave in to temptation. She led me on. She consented to it. That’s what she wanted.”

Maqsood was also ordered to complete a sexual offenders’ prevention order and sign on the sex offenders’ register for life.

The cabbie, whose wife was pregnant with their fourth child when he committed the offence, was expressionless as he was led from the dock.

The court heard he had been threatened by fellow inmates while in custody and that his family had been the subject of threats and abuse.